iPhone 4 photos suffering from a blue tint

Posted Monday, August 23, 2010 at 9:14 am by Jason Cartwright |

Over time you will use the iPhone 4 in a number of different conditions. It turns out there may be an issue that hasn’t been widely reported and its certainly a strange one. It seems photos taken with the rear facing camera of the iPhone 4 under florescent indoor lighting causes photos to have a blue tint that appears as a circle from the centre of the photo. The tint is so bad it renders photos under these conditions effectively useless.

Shooting in other lighting conditions like sunlight, incandescent or LED lighting results in normal happy, healthy photos with no sign of the blues. If your wondering about video.. it happens there as well.

iPhone 4 Blue tint on photos

As for the front-facing camera, it also happens but not as severe. After consulting twitter for feedback, a number of other iPhone owners have confirmed it happens for them as well. It’s probably not a deal breaker that would prevent you from buying the phone, but rather something to keep in mind. Make sure you review your photos afterwards to ensure the photos aren’t ruined from the tint.

Some people have suggested it is caused by the rear camera being recessed and getting some kind of reflection. Leave a comment if you’ve experienced the same thing. How much does this issue annoy you ?

http://twitter.com/SeanPincombe SeanPincombe

Our offices at work are filled with fluro lights so I noticed this straight off the bat, really annoying and I hope Apple can get a fix out soon.

I think there’s a similar issue with tungsten lights causing an orangey yellow tint too.
Pingback: oh noes, more worry for iPhone 4 users - The Older Gamers Forums
Currawong

How does this render the shots “useless” exactly? It doesn’t prevent anyone reading text in the shots or seeing what’s in them clearly, it just discolors them.
Pingback: iPhone 4 camera mystery tint causes problems » Cupertino Loop » TECHGEEK.com.au
Craig

Common problem for ALL affordable, high sensitivity CMOS Sensors using a Rolling Shutter with a Fixed IRIS and AES.. Progressive Sensors and DC/AI Camera’s are much more expensive…..
Craig

Point the Camera directly at a Fluro. Light Grid in an Office ceiling and you will see brown lines… just about every Mobile Phone Camera and a lot of Digital Still Camera’s will have the same problem!
http://techAU.tv techau

I say useless because the blue isn’t a tint across the hole photo it means you can’t even Photoshop the problem out.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=621751324 Phillip Shipton

For a device that is supposed to be magical this is deeply troubling
Noone

For my opinion, the iphone is crap. Get a real smart phone (e.g. HTC HD2) if you want to be professional…
FilterWiz

It is just the low cost IR filter. Instead of blue glass they used a hot-mirror kind interference filter.
http://twitter.com/AssignmentDesk1 Dorrine Mendoza

I shot video inside and outside and it was completely blue. Ruined the whole thing.
http://twitter.com/rocotilos Emir F Samsuddin

Hi, I just got an iPhone4 and this problem is present in the photos under fluorescent light, and as i tested it, it does occur in incandescent light too. As an iPhone developer, I created an app to solve this problem.. check it out!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/camera-spot-fix-remove-blue/id403091218?mt=8
http://techAU.tv techau

That’s great Emir, I’ve tweeted out the link to your app. I’ll write a full post on it, after I’ve done some further testing.

Cheers.
Oregano76

I’ve seemed to have developed this exact same problem (blue spot in white background esp under fluorescent lights) but only after a restore of my phone due to an unrelated issue. It didn’t happen before this. Which makes me think there’s a software issue? How can we escalate to Apple – to make them take notice?

There’s a thread here on the Apple forums:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2479908&tstart=15

There’s a thread here in the Ape support forums.
Asd

same problem here.
Manel Duarte

Well i googled about this problem and tour post was one of the first links.I have the exact same problem in the exact same conditions.I detected it a few hours ago! I bought my IPhone a month ago and i’m from Portugal.Will this be solved by a firmware update or do we have another problem lime the antenna one?
http://techAU.tv Jason Cartwright

I would love a firmware update to fix this issue. Unfortunately a much more likely scenario is that we’ll have to wait for iPhone 5 for it to be remedied.
FarhanSomali

take off the protective film on the camera and the flash! I had that blue-sh thing but since I took it off now is clear and brighter.

Good luck
Farhan
http://techAU.tv techau

So here’s the fix / work around.. http://www.techau.tv/blog/how-to-remove-blue-tint-from-iphone-photos/
Kaléo

Emir, congratulations for your inclination on developing this app. I’m downloading it right now and sharing your link.

Farewell!
Monkeymajayk

Or you know, a camera.

iPhone 4 photos suffering from a blue tint

Friends

Categories

Store

Support the content!